On 29 February 2000, Thomas Andrew Keir
received a sentence of 24 years imprisonment, with a
non-parole period of 18 years, for the murder of his first
wife Jean Strachan Keir in 1988. But now, almost two years
later, the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal quashed the
conviction and ordered a retrial which is scheduled for
July 2002.

In his judgement on sentence, Justice
Adams said that Keir's "arrogant, controlling behaviour in
respect of his wife, demonstrated from time to time by his
manhandling of her, his concealment of her contraceptive
pills and his threats of murder, showed that he considered
her as his property to be dealt with as he thought it
right".

At Keir's trial, evidence was given by
a forensic biologist that DNA analysis of bone fragments
found outside Keir's residence showed that, "it is
approximately 660,000 times more likely to obtain this
particular DNA profile found in the bones if it comes from
a child of [the biological parents of Jean Strachan Keir]
than from a child of a random mating in the Australian
population."

However, the trial judge instructed the
jury that there was, "a 660,000 chance to one that these
bones were not those of Jean Keir."

"Those are two very different things in
statistical terms," senior counsel for Keir, Paul Byrne,
told the appeal hearing. And, because the judge had
invited the jury to view the DNA evidence as discrediting
a key defence witness who claimed to have seen Jean eight
months after her alleged murder, Keir was effectively
deprived "of a chance that the jury might have looked at
the sighting evidence as grounds to acquit," he said.

Michael Sexton, the NSW
Solicitor-General, conceded the DNA evidence had been
wrongly presented, but argued the Crown case was
overwhelming when all evidence was taken into account.

Jean's mother, Christine Strachan, was
in court. After the appeal hearing she told the press,
"Now, 14 years after she disappeared, we have to go
through the whole thing again. I cried buckets during that
trial ... all that heartache. I'm so disappointed, I
cannot believe it."

Another mother is also grieving over
the loss of her daughter. Ester is the mother of Rosalina
Canonizado who was Keir's second wife. In April 1991
Rosalina was found strangled in her bedroom, her body set
alight. Keir was tried for her murder, but acquitted. Both
Filipinas, Jean and Rosalina quite coincidentally were
second cousins.

- with a report from the Sydney Morning
Herald, 22 Feb 2002.

STOP PRESS: The
retrial of Thomas Andrew Keir commenced in the Supreme
Court of New South Wales on 5 August, 2002. A jury of 8
men and four women found Keir guilty of the murder of his
first wife, Jean Angela Strachan Keir. Justice Kirby on 21 March, 2003,
sentenced Keir to 22 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 16 years.
Keir will therefore be eligible for release on parole on 20 February, 2014,
two years earlier than the original sentence.